At only 5 minutes in length, this stylishly shot mini documentary feels more like a trailer for an upcoming movie. Unfortunately that's not the case, but the stripped back and slowed down recital of Follow the Leader provides a dramatic soundtrack to accompany the visuals. Rah also talks briefly about his creative process.
I'm pleased to see the stress and chaos of Christmas well behind me, now its time to focus on music and blogging.....
Here's some interesting stuff the internet has thrown up over the last few weeks:
Boombox History
In this era, where virtually everything from the early days of hip hop has become either a collectable, iconic, valuable, or captured in some kind of documentary, it never occurred to me that nobody has every really given any shine to the good old boombox. You know, before the man bag, the record bag or the back pack, the must have accessory was a boom box (or 'ghetto blaster' in some local dialects). So it's great to see that Egotripland picked up this article which looks back at the power sucking radios that so many of us first heard the latest Electro album on way back in the 80's.
The original soloist on the mic breaks down a little history in this short biopic. There's some nice old school footage to accompany the Chief Rocker's narrative of his early years, and he touches on his clashes with Kool Moe Dee and Lovebug Starski.
R U Gonna Eat That?
I'm really feeling this Dopplegangaz joint of the recently released Marco Polo LP - PA2: The Director's Cut, and now it's got a video! Marco's smooth thumping beat really fits the Dopplegangaz flow and makes the perfect recipe. Yep, you should certainly digest this.
Madiba
Whenever I see something new by Rakim I approach with extreme caution, as so often I'm left feeling underwhelmed. I still burn a torch for him in the hope that one day he returns with the right producer and blows me away again. Unfortunately, this track wasn't the one, but it's a timely tribute to Nelson Mandela and for that reason alone it should get some shine.
It's been an interesting month on the internet. Aside the drama around Tim Dog's supposedly fake death, and the passing of one half of Kris Kross, there's also been some retro goodness. Here we go....
The Microphone Master
The Red Bull Music Academy has been consistently representing good hip hop for a few years now, but now they bring us nearly 2 hours of discussion with hip hop's greatest emcee. I don't think I need say any more, let Ra do the talking.
NYC Live Throw Down: 1979-1985
Just take another look at that image! 26 hours!!! Props to Janka-man for sharing this. It turned up on one of the best websites there is for finding obscure and out of print records. I'd never seen it before, so I'm assuming many of you won't have either. Here's the description:
Over 1 full day (33 live performances) of vintage and official live throwdowns, spanning from 1979 to 1985. New York City's original school together in one complete set. This collector's set includes one data DVD containing 3.5 GB of high quality (320 Bit Rate) mp3's. Each show is ID'd and sequenced, resulting in convenient use and enjoyment, as opposed to each show being one thirty to ninety minute-long continuous track.
No collection is complete without the infamous Kool Moe Dee / Busy Bee scuffle, or the notorious routines of the Force MCs, Treacherous Three, and Cold Crush 4 MCs. The list of essentials on this disc is endless. Includes a 24 page full color booklet of vintage NYC show flyers and artwork.
If you're an old schooler with a passion for this type of stuff, then download, buy some food supplies and lock yourself in a room for a couple of days whilst you reminisce. All the links and a detailed track listing can be found here:
Last month was the 3rd anniversary of Guru's death. Somehow this tribute track from Marco Polo, Talib Kweli and DJ Premier completely passed me by, which is a shame, because it's pretty nice. See what you think.
Would You Like a Demo of ESP?
Nope, I'm not offering to read your mind, or bend a spoon. I'm talking about the demo tape of Tha Alkaholiks when they went under their previous name, the Educated Street Poets or ESP. I've previously covered this demo (and 29 others) here, but the tracks were embedded and were not available for download, whereas this downloadable version contains all 6 tracks. Props to Warlord for sharing this rarity.
Producer Dominic Owen has released the 3rd instalment of his unreleased Rakim tracks. This time round we're blessed with Get Visual (which eventually made it onto Rakim's debut LP The 18th Letter under the title When I'm Flowing).
For me, this is an interesting piece of history that adds another layer to this track. As you can see from the Soundcloud title, Dominic produced this track in 1995, but the LP wasn't released until 1997! This version is far superior to the album cut, but then I've always hated the LP version. Why? Because there is another (bootleg) version that ranks as one of my all time favourite Rakim tracks. Both versions are presented here, you decide which is better, but don't waste your time with the LP version.
Following on from my previous post, producer Dominic Owen is blessing us with yet another unreleased track from his personal collection. In my last post I speculatively questioned how many other Rakim tracks had better versions that remained unreleased, and this is just further evidence that the answer to that question could be many.
What I find quite frustrating is that 1995 is the era when Rakim was coming under a lot of fire for his poor selection of producers and tracks, and rightly so. Many of his official releases were lyrically outstanding and musically underwhelming. And now we see another example of a shelved track that is far superior to much of what was being released at that time.
This version has that classic mid 90's sound to it and would have been a real head nodder had it been released. Forget that, it still is a head nodder, take a listen.
November's been a pretty dope month for classic material and historical hip hop trivia, as this months round up hopefully demonstrates. Amongst the collection is an unreleased mix of a Rakim classic, some Pharcyde craziness, and a monster collection of rare old school radio rips. Check it out after the jump.
Here is this months round up of interesting offerings from around the internet:
DJ Format - Hip Hop & Funk Mix
Thanks to Battlechaser for bringing my attention to this great mix by acclaimed DJ and produced, DJ Format. A clever mix of Hip Hop and Funk that he put together to promote his live set with Simonsound on the 18th August. Check it out.
It's only 10 minutes long, but any amount of time with the god emcee is always an intriguing experience. Some nice little clips of old freestyles on the streets of NY are included too.
Mixtape History
Unkut.com recently produced an interesting article that documents the origins and evolution of the mixtape. Personally I never really gave a thought as to how the original mixtape came about, but having read Unkut's brief lesson in mixtape history, I've certainly had an enjoyable history lesson (which is more than ever happened to me at school).
I should make it clear, this isn't about the modern mixtape that unsigned artists use in an effort to get noticed, Think of the old Kid Capri and Ron G style of mixtape.
Well, August has been a quiet month across many blogs and there's not been a great deal that I'd shout about (or take the time to share with you), but hopefully these two little gems will prove that quality is better then quantity. I doubt many can argue that these two pieces of news are music to most people's ears.
Premo Produced Rakim LP!
The second great piece of news coming from the DJ Premier blog this month is that Rakim is working on a new album and Premo is producing it. Now, this collaboration is probably around 15 years over due and most people probably can't understand why this project hasn't already happened as it's a no brainer for both artists. Check the video for more details:
